Page 32 of Phoenix Academy: Madness

There's no way this ends well.

Eyes front, Ari. Pretend like you never saw the angry young man's large dick and just act normal.

Whatevernormalis.

* * *

Lunch. The bane of every high schooler's existence—or so I think, based on my limited education of the public high school experience, received through watching '90s movies and a few sporadic days here and there at school myself. Most of my education was obtained the classic witch way, at home under my mother's tutelage and through the shared expertise of whichever coven we were living with at the time, augmented with a tiny bit of Montessori here and there.

Basically, I've never walked into a giant cafeteria full of tables and had to figure out where to plonk me and my tray down.

Until now.

It's the first day of school for me, but everyone here has clearly been around, not just for two days but for years before I ever showed up. Most of them have been at this school for a while, but quite a few of the first years seem to know each other from other places. I'm the odd witch out, a strange weed in a well-tended garden.

It doesn't help that my hair is blue.

Everyone seems to be looking my way.

I do my best to ignore it and go through the food line, picking up mostly vegetarian things. The meat here is clearly not hunted—if I want to eat something with some bite to it, I'll have to kill it myself. It's bad luck for a naturalistic witch like me to have anything to do with an animals unrested spirit.

If I even am a witch anymore.

Taking my time picking up bits of dishes along the line, I reach the end and slowly head towards the middle of the dining hall, where all the students are. I recognize a few first years from my history class, but none of them even look up at me except to stare at my blue hair then quickly glance away. They all avoid eye contact, making it clear with every torturous moment that there are no friends for me here.

It's not a big deal. I've never had friends before, not really. We were always on the run: me, Mom, and Lizzy. It was the three of us and no one else.

Now it's just me.

Keeping my chin up, I hold myself together and head towards a corner table that looks quiet and empty. It's far back enough that I'll have to walk past every other table to get to it. Eyes follow me through the room, curious murmurs starting.

I'm the girl with the madness inside her.

My touch drives people mad. Turns shifters into wild animals. Even kills people, sometimes.

No wonder they push their seats together as I pass by, making sure there's no room for me to sit down. All it'll take is a bit of uncontrolled emotion, an accidental graze, a brief touch, and they'll all go mad.

I might as well resign myself to being alone from now on.

"Ari! Over here." A voice pulls me out of my moroseness and catches my attention. "You can sit with us."

It's Reggie, sitting with Xavier and David. He grins at me, motioning me over.

I pause for a moment, looking at the three of them. "You sure?"

"After this morning?" Reggie snorts. "We're stuck together indefinitely, so come on over. The water's warm. Well," he amends, "David is his usual unwelcoming self. Just pretend like he's not here. It's easy enough, since he sulks constantly."

"You," David declares, "are a real fucking asshole."

"See? Can't even hear him."

I hesitate, unsure if I'mreallywelcome, but then Xavier gives me a sweet smile that melts my hesitation—and warms me like nothing else. Wearestuck together for a while, and if I sit with them I don't have to worry about my powers turning them into feral shifters monsters, so it's better than the alternatives.

Especially since there are no alternatives.

"So." Xavier eyes me from across the table as I sit next to Reggie, diagonal from a definitely-not-thrilled David. "How did your first half of your first day of classes go?"

"Could've been better. Apparently demons inside the classroom are a thing. Also, my history teacher kept talking about all the phoenix who died in Europe in the 1500s, and it was pretty grim." I frown at my own accidental pun. "I mean, depressing. And people keep looking at me like I'm a freak, maybe because of the blue hair. Plus I miss the outdoors. And meat that wasn't tortured to death. And birdsong."

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